Ninety-two thousand, three-hundred Lien, and he was suddenly five-hundred Copper Ore, five-hundred Tin Ore and three-hundred Iron Ore richer.
Another expenditure of five-thousand and he'd effectively rented out the store's forge, for the next few hours, at least. Five, to be exact.
Naruto started working, placing chunks of ore in the furnace, step by step, melting down the tin and copper, his semblance simplifying the process to a point where it took him roughly a minute to turn two pieces of ore into one bar of Bronze.
And then all of a sudden five hours was up.
Naruto blinked, and then decided to blink a second time, confusion etched into his face. Where had all the time gone? He had barely noticed the passage of reality, so lost in the peaceful monotony of crafting.
In fact, his Crafting skill had gone up to Level 20, and his Designer title had gone up a rank, to Apprentice.
And he'd been paying so little attention he hadn't really even noticed.
He dusted down his hands, patting them against his pants and giving his arms a quick stretch. He'd paid for the five hours, and he'd used the five hours. He wasn't even sure if they'd let him keep going, even if he did pay. They had to close up at some point, or so he assumed.
Then again, he'd been probably one of their biggest customers in a while. Maybe they'd let it slide… No, he didn't want to push his luck. Hell, he was surprised that they even sold to him in the first place. There weren't many human-friendly faunus in Menagerie, or anywhere else, for that matter.
Something the White Fang wasn't helping. He'd have to speak with Blake about her plans, he couldn't stay in Menagerie forever.
Naruto stepped out of the workshop, wiping the sweat from his brow, admiring the evening view, the warm air cool on his skin just simply from comparison. It was much warmer back inside the forge, naturally, that came with the heat from the actual, physical forge. It wasn't easy to alloy metals without it.
It wasn't too long a trek back to the Belladonna household, especially when he knew the way, but he still stalled for a moment.
Something felt… off, with the atmosphere.
Naruto looked around. Where were all the people? He didn't think they'd be hiding from him, he's seen this very street far more bustling.
Were people just turning in for an early night or something? Was there an event?
Naruto's hand strayed to his side, comfortably sitting against the handle of Crocea Mors.
Something was definitely wrong.
He moved faster, picking up speed. Not fast enough to be considered a sprint, but enough that he was covering ground.
He could feel his Sixth Sense tingling faintly, keeping his attention, eyes tracing his surroundings.
He'd had his suspicions before, but now it had evidence, not easily explained away.
His Sixth Sense was becoming increasingly more fervent in its warnings, pulsing at a steadier and steadier rate in the back of his mind.
He cast his eyes nearly skyward, keeping his gaze even as he traced his sight over the many rooftops and trees that littered this end of Kuo Kuana.
There was definitely something up there. Someone.
Another, approaching from his left, in the alley?
A third, behind him. A broader target, easier to spot, if you knew where to look.
Naruto was thankful he did.
"Is there something I can help you with?" He voiced, loud enough that he knew they couldn't ignore him. "Sneaking up on me never works!"
The three faunus made themselves known, stepping into his line of sight.
Or rather, two of them did. The third descended from the air, powerful wings folding up and tucking behind his shoulders.
Bat wings, from the look of them.
The other two were equally different. The one behind him, the easiest to spot, was also the easiest to identify, a large horn protruding from his forehead. A rhino faunus, most likely, especially considering the sheer width the man possessed.
The final one, emerging from the alley, Naruto couldn't tell the trait of. In fact, if it weren't for the purplish-color of her hands, he'd never have known. Well, aside from the knowledge that they were White Fang.
That he could tell simply from the uniforms.
None of them decided to respond to his prior conversation-starter, so he figured he would try again, this time adding a portion of his Intimidating Presence to the words, just to give them that little extra kick
"What do you want?"
His question came out with just as much force as he'd been expecting, and despite that it didn't seem to faze any of them.
Instead, the one with the wings gave a shrug. "Well, we were supposed to keep you distracted, but you did that all by yourself."
Naruto found his body tense up even further than it had been moments before. "What?"
The woman spoke this time, one purplish hand coming to rest on her hip, palm against the handle of a knife. "Not a normal thing for Hunters to do, working that long in a place like that."
Naruto drew Crocea Mors, holding the sword loosely in one hand, eyeing up what was becoming more and more likely to be his new opponents. "Not what I was asking."
The largest of the three spoke next, his voice carrying with a firm gravitas. "Your questions do not matter."
Well, that made things a little more simple. That didn't mean he wasn't going to ask, though. "What were you supposed to be keeping me from?"
None of the three answered. Instead, the woman and the large man drew their weapons, the one with wings taking to the sky.
"I guess you'll just have to tell me after I beat you," Naruto remarked, giving Crocea Mors a quick flourish, his gaze scanning the three. Observe activated at his silent prompting, and the sudden influx of information was exactly what he needed.
Yuma Myotis, Level 50. Trifa Sciata, Level 48. Keras Sondai, Level 53.
The three of them were underleveled, at least compared to him. Of course, there were three of them, and they weren't Grimm. They could think, and work together.
That didn't matter, though. Naruto wasn't worried about what they could do to him. He was more worried about what they were supposed to be keeping him from. All the more reason to finish this quickly.
Naruto went to move, leaning into his movement, but the hand of the woman, Trifa, came up in a flash, and suddenly he was bound, a sticky webbing wrapping around his body and holding him tight, the string-like trail coming from her hands.
Naruto quirked his eyebrow in surprise, finding himself unable to even wriggle, struggling seeming to only bind him further.
The largest of the three, Keras, was moving in as swift a man that size could, a massive maul wound back for a swing. Naruto definitely didn't want to be on the receiving end of that, but he had a couple moments to consider his options.
He decided on a course of action in less than a moment, activating Phaseshift and watching in satisfaction as both the webbing and the rhino faunus's maul passed straight through him, and he deactivated it the moment he was clear, ducking underneath another blast of sticky web from Trifa, Crocea Mors barely managing to be deflected by her knife.
He would've taken a follow-up swing if Yuma hadn't swept down from the sky, a bare-knuckled fist hitting Naruto in the side, the force from the dive pushing him clear of what was very apparently a spider faunus, Crocea Mors clattering to the pavement.
Naruto slid backwards as Yuma manipulated the punch into a grapple, his other arm coming up to wrap around Naruto's neck in a sleeper hold.
Naruto wasn't about to let that slide. He's spent enough time around Yang to know exactly how to break that. He took a step back, his foot straying behind Yuma's leg, and he grabbed, lifting and slamming the bat faunus into the ground.
Yuma grunted as he hit, but he rolled clear, and Naruto was too busy to prevent him from doing so, having to roll himself, Keras' maul nearly grazing his head with a brutal uppercut that would have more than likely taken his head off if it had hit.
He went to look for his sword, only to see Trifa webbing it to the floor, so that was out of the question for the time being.
Well, he'd channeled his inner Yang. Maybe it was time to channel his inner Pyrrha, too.
Crocea Mors' sheath unfolded into a shield, and Naruto quickly used it to smack the incoming maul to the side, watching as it landed with a reverberating thud against the ground, and he quickly used it as a springpoint, leaping up and hitting Keras in the face with a Shield Bash, watching as the man took a step back, losing his grip on his weapon.
Naruto followed it up with a more complicated strike, landing the point of his shield against the large man's jaw.
The teen then proceeded to watch in detached awe as the bone simply shattered underneath the force of the blow, Keras spitting out a mouthful of blood and teeth.
Well, attempting to spit out was probably a more accurate description. It was difficult to do when the entirety of his lower jaw was hanging open at an angle that was definitely not healthy. His Aura was already patching up the wound, but it seemed the man wasn't so competent that he could keep up his Aura while stunned.
Naruto didn't have any more time to spare, though, as a knife skittered off his shield.
His other hand reached out and grabbed Trifa by the wrist, yanking her around and into the path of Yuma, who crashed into the three of them in a tangle of limbs.
They broke apart in a flurry, scattering backwards to gain just a little bit of breathing room, but even that little bit wasn't enough to stop Yuma from pushing forwards, palms outstretched, attempting another grapple.
He was intercepted, though, as a snake of white and gold struck without warning, coils wrapping around the bat faunus's neck and tightening.
Yuma hit the ground knees first, clutching weakly at Ouroboros, but the Taijitu summon wasn't going to give any ground, and soon the White Fang agent passed out, blue in the face.
That left Trifa, and one very pissed off Keras, who was charging at Naruto, horn pointed straight at him.
Like a matador with his life on the line, Naruto stepped out of the way with a quick flourish, and decided to skip the rest of the display, throwing his shield at Trifa, who barely managed to duck out of the way.
But he'd taken a leaf out of Pyrrha's book yet again, and used it as merely a distraction. A way to break visual acuity and get close.
His fist, coated in Mana, hit the woman in the face, and she hit the floor with a loud crack, blood streaming from what was definitely a broken nose. She almost looked like she wanted to resist the unconsciousness, but as her Aura broke, so too did her will, and she passed out much like Yuma had, though not in the same way.
That left the biggest of the three, Keras. Naruto wasn't sure he could knock someone like him out. Trying a chokehold on him would be like attempting to wrap his hands around a tree trunk. Sure, it was possible, but there were so many variables to making that happen that it just wasn't worth considering.
The man was charging again. He'd lost his temper, and with it his reason, and thus had presented Naruto with a very simple solution.
Naruto placed one hand against the ground, and watched as Terrakinesis lifted a thick wall between the two of them.
A single moment passed of silence, before a cacophonous crack sounded out through the street, followed by a loud thump.
Naruto restored the street to its former glory, lowering the wall he'd created back into the ground, and eyed his handiwork, Ouroboros slithering back up Naruto's arm and back inside his sleeve, where he'd been summoned, coiling around Naruto's neck, though without the choking intent it had with Yuma.
Naruto didn't have time to stay and wait for them to wake up, to interrogate them. Instead, he quickly freed Crocea Mors, turned, beginning the sprint back to the Belladonna household.
And considering Surface Walk would allow him to travel as the Nevermore flies, well, he'd get there even quicker.
He could only hope it would be quick enough.
Electricity crackled as it lanced around her, the metal that acted as its conduit nearly striking her in the thigh, if not for her semblance. Departing her body in a puff of smoke and leaving behind a clone made of shadow was always an interesting sensation, even more so when the clone was more solid.
"Ilia, please! You don't have to do this! Just talk to me!" She cried out, desperately trying to placate with her former best friend.
"The time for talk has been over for so long, Blake! You betrayed us!" Ilia cried out in return, another lash from her whip nearly landing true.
"No! I never betrayed the Faunus!" Blake shouted. "Adam betrayed us all, Ilia! Surely you can see that! All he wants is revenge, not freedom! Not equality!"
Ilia finally landed a stroke, taking advantage of Blake's outburst to land a strike on the black-haired teen's left arm, her Aura flickering a deep purple as it absorbed the damage. "What makes you think I don't want revenge! You know what the Humans did to me, to my family!"
Blake flipped backwards, out of reach. "Ilia…"
Ilia didn't advance to close the distance. "No, Blake! You betrayed the Faunus, but you betrayed me, too! You should have talked to me, at least warned me! Who do you think the first person Adam went to was when you disappeared!?"
Blake paled. "I-I didn't think-"
Ilia shook her head. "Of course you didn't, Blake. You're selfish. You ran without even leaving a message, and so many others had to pay for it. You're still running, aren't you? But this time you had to bring a human here!"
Ilia began her assault once more, each strike of her whip enunciating her words. "You just had to come back, didn't you! I'd almost managed to get over you and boom! You're right back in my life!"
Blake dodged the attacks, deflecting the final one with the sheath of Gambol Shroud. "Ilia, I never meant to get you hurt!"
The glare that Ilia levelled at Blake made the cat faunus wince. "You should have thought of that so, so many times over the years. You have no idea how many times you hurt me, without even knowing it."
"Then let me make up for it! Help me restore the White Fang to what it once was, what it's meant to be!"
Ilia paused for all of a single moment, considering the offer. "If you believe you can convince Sienna where your parents couldn't, you're even more stupid than I thought. You can't change the White Fang, Blake. We're criminals. Terrorists. That's what we've been called, and you can't just wipe away the deeds we've done."
"You don't know that!" Blake was practically shouting.
"You really have lied to yourself for so long you've forgotten the truth, haven't you? I'm guilty of so many things, but so are you. You and I are no better than Adam, or anyone else. Or are you saying you forgot about those Atlesian soldiers three years ago?"
It took all of her strength to remain standing. "We had no choice."
Ilia lowered her weapon. "Sure. That's what we all tell ourselves. But you left. You could have left earlier, before that. That was a choice. You could always have refused."
"Adam would have-"
Ilia interrupted her. "Adam would have done exactly what Adam is doing now. He hasn't changed, Blake, I haven't changed. You did."
"I'm trying to make amends for what I did."
"By running from your problems? By hiding yourself away and cowering behind the safety of a little bow?"
Blake's eyes locked with Ilia's. "How did you know about that?"
"Adam was very kind to keep me updated on you whenever we talked. Once he'd realized that I knew nothing about your escape, he figured I was his best ally for tracking you down. He sent me here, to watch for your return."
Blake's eyes widened. "You told him I came back?"
Ilia shook her head. "Not yet. I still might. I haven't decided if I want Adam's support, or to hold it over you."
"Blackmail?" Blake asked, incredulous.
"No. I'm not going to ask you to do anything other than leave. I don't want you in Menagerie. The White Fang doesn't want you in Menagerie, Blake, you or your human."
Blake's eyes widened. "This isn't about me, or you. This is the Albain brothers. They want Naruto gone."
Ilia furrowed her brow. "No, they wanted you both dead. I argued against killing you. I told them I could make you leave. The human is already dead."
"You know that for certain?" Blake asked, standing upright.
Ilia shrugged. "Yuma, Trifa and Keras were sent to kill him. He'll already be dead, or close."
Blake nearly let the smug look she wanted to wear so badly show. "You don't know anything about him, do you?"
"Why should I? He's a human, nothing more."
Blake shook her head. "Honestly, Ilia, between you and me? I don't think Naruto's human at all. Don't underestimate him."
"You have a real high opinion of him. That's rare."
"Well, I appreciate the compliment. I think. Blake, are you going to introduce me?"
He'd just landed on the balcony on the east side of the Belladonna Household, as quietly as he could, and the darkness wasn't so dark that he could make out the two figures.
Naruto wasn't sure what was going on, but from the looks of it, this woman was White Fang, and that Blake and the woman had a past. At least, that's what he'd determined from what he'd heard.
"Naruto, Ilia. Ilia, Naruto. There you go, you're all caught up."
And in typical Blake fashion, she'd kept her word count to a minimum, whilst managing to keep her dry wit intact.
"Wow, that felt like such a warm introduction," Naruto remarked. "You always have such a way with words."
"The more things change the more they stay the same, I guess. I'm surprised you aren't dead, human. Did you sneak away from Yuma, Trifa and Keras?"
Naruto shrugged. "If by sneak away you mean knock them all unconscious, then yeah."
Ilia quirked an eyebrow. "Huh. Color me surprised."
Blake let out a sigh.
Naruto rested one hand on the sheathed handle of Crocea Mors. "So, is this conversation time, or fighting time? Or are we doing a mix of both, with an added amount of sexual tension, because I'd rather not get involved in that if that's the case."
Ilia's entire body went pink, which caused Naruto no end of surprise. "Huh."
Blake let out another sigh, before turning to Ilia. "Ilia, please. Just stand down, and let's talk this out. I don't want to fight you, but I don't think Naruto has the same issues."
"Ouroboros choked out Yuma. Thought I'd just throw that out, I kind of felt like bragging for his sake. You know, considering he's a snake and he can't brag on his own, with the whole lacking the ability to speak thing."
Both Blake and Ilia looked at Naruto. Naruto shrugged. "He's here, if you feel like saying hello."
Ouroboros's head peeked out from Naruto's coat, forked tongue tasting the air.
Ilia quirked an eyebrow even higher. "I've met a lot of humans. You're definitely one of the weirdest."
Naruto shrugged. "I get that a lot."
They fell into a moment of silence, before Ilia put her weapon away. "I'll hear what you have to say. I'm giving you one chance to convince me of whatever it is you're trying to convince me of, but if you can't, I'm killing him and forcing you out of Menagerie."
Naruto tilted his head. "Not to accidentally cause another fight, but I don't think it'll be that easy to kill me."
"Naruto?" Blake asked.
"Yeah?" Naruto replied.
"Shut up."
Naruto nodded. "I can do that, yeah."
He took a seat on the balcony railing, near effortlessly keeping his balance upon it.
"Ilia, the White Fang were a part of the attack on Beacon."
If Blake was expecting Ilia to be horrified by that news, she was sorely mistaken.
"Adam said as much. Said he was leading an attack against the humans that protect other humans, and those that betrayed their own kind to do the same."
Blake and Naruto shared a look.
"Ilia, Adam was working for a human. A group of them, who needed the White Fang as disposable soldiers. They dropped Grimm into the school, and into Vale itself. They took down Amity Colosseum!"
That had the intended reaction. "What? The Grimm thing and the colosseum thing I knew, but Adam, working for humans?"
Naruto nodded. "As far as we know, Cinder Fall hired and supplied Adam. Roman Torchwick, a notorious human criminal, was leading groups of the White Fang on raids. They went from stealing dust to outright attempting to cause breaches in Vale's defenses. They sacrificed an entire train-full of White Fang on an attack they knew would fail, just so they couldn't be interrogated."
Naruto closed his eyes for a moment, pushing the memories back. "I barely managed to stop the breach."
"Banesaw died, killed on their orders by Roman's assassin," Blake continued. "He was a moment away from revealing everything to Naruto."
"You have to be kidding me," Ilia said. "This is bullshit. We both know Adam, he'd never give in to a human."
"Cinder's no normal human. There's a reason why her attack succeeded. She nearly killed some of the best fighters in Vale without so much as a hit. I couldn't even touch her if I tried, but I was pretty badly beaten up already. The White Fang needs to make better bombs, by the way."
Ilia almost commented on that, but Blake grabbed her attention once more. "Ilia, you know it's true."
"What did she look like?" Ilia asked, and Blake directed her to Naruto.
"Medium-length black hair, piercing amber eyes, red dress. Evil Blake without the ears, basically."
Blake glared.
"What? I said evil!"
Ilia ignored the diatribe. "I've seen her. The human's not wrong, she does look a bit like you. If she was faunus, I might've honestly mistaken her for you at a distance. Knowing now that she wasn't..."
"Ilia..."
Ilia shook her head. "She was at the camp when you were, Blake. How did you miss her?"
Blake's eyes widened. "That's what Adam was meeting about… The one he told me not to worry about. We had the train mission the next morning."
"When you abandoned us," Ilia muttered.
"And that was the day I saved your life!" Naruto said nonchalantly. "I knew I'd figure out the exact timeline on that eventually."
Blake rounded on Naruto. "I've said it so many times, you distracted me! If you hadn't been there, those Ursa wouldn't have been a problem!"
Naruto nodded slowly, with the most condescending look he could muster.
Blake pushed him off the balcony.
Ilia let out a surprised laugh, though she quickly smothered it. "So Adam betrayed the White Fang, not you. Well, you did too, but it's a lesser crime to run than it is to manipulate an entire cell into following the orders of a human. I guess you're the lesser of two evils."
Blake sighed. "I didn't want to run, Ilia, but I couldn't stay. Maybe if Adam wasn't so… Adam, I'd have said that I felt disillusioned with the way the White Fang was progressing, but we both know what he'd do to keep me."
The black-haired girl repressed a shiver. "I can't go back to that. I won't."
Ilia looked away. "I… I know. I just wish it could have gone differently." Her eyes snapped back up to Blake. "I still haven't forgiven you. But if Adam's betrayed the White Fang, Sienna needs to know. And I can't keep working for him, knowing that. We need to take this to the Albain brothers. They'll pass the message onto Sienna."
Naruto clambered back onto the balcony. "We've been working on that. Blake's father was passing the message onto Sienna, but I don't know how successful that was. Blake, where are your parents?"
Ilia answered. "We chose this night because both the Chieftain and Lady Kali would be out having dinner with the Albain's."
"The Albain's being the ones who tried to have me and Blake killed?" Naruto asked.
Ilia immediately raised both hands. "They're safe. I was supposed to chase Blake off the island, I said as much, and your death was supposed to be blamed as you attacking the White Fang out of anger for being shot."
"So that was deliberate!" Naruto exclaimed loudly.
Ilia nodded. "Human or not, you took that shot pretty well. Must be the thick skull."
There was a moment of silence. "So, what now? I definitely could sleep, I've been working all afternoon, and I'm exhausted. Or, well, I will be, once the adrenaline wears off."
"Yuma sent me a message about that. What were you even doing?" Ilia asked.
Naruto waved here question off. "No matter how long you've known Blake, or how much she trusts you now, I don't know you. And I don't really trust you, especially not with some of the things about me. Maybe you'll find out one day. Maybe not. Right now, though, the details aren't important. I was just working away, forging metal as a favor."
He knew it wasn't a very good lie, but it seemed that the words before it had landed where he'd needed them to.
"For the record, human, I trust you even less. You put three of the White Fang's best into the dirt without taking a hit, but I've never heard of you. You're obviously hiding something pretty serious. Serious means dangerous, which means you're putting Blake in danger. I don't like that."
"Bit late to be playing the concerned friend card," Naruto remarked.
"Knock it off, both of you. Ilia, you'd better report in, say that you've delivered your message. They won't care if you haven't succeeded, they'll be too busy with Naruto to worry about you or me. We need to keep up your facade."
Blake's words struck a chord. "Yeah, I'll do that. It might mean they'll send me after him, though."
Naruto smiled. "We'll just have to put on a good show, then, won't we."
Ilia's fingers tapped a rhythm against her weapon. "I'm a method-actor, human. It only seems real if it is real."
She completed her statement by turning nearly completely black, and disappearing into the night.
Blake slumped over, leaning against the railing.
"You okay?" Naruto asked, concern filling his voice.
Blake nodded soundlessly. "I just… I don't know what I was expecting. Ilia was my closest friend for years, and seeing her again…"
Naruto accepted the answer, knowing better than to push. "If it means anything, I think she really wanted to believe you from the start. She doesn't like me very much though."
"I don't like you very much most of the time."
Naruto could tell the insult had less than no bite. Dry sarcasm as a defense mechanism was something he was very familiar with. "Get some sleep. You look like you've been through hell."
Blake took the advice as instructions, disappearing inside the house. Naruto would do something similar soon, he'd retire to his own bed, and sleep.
First, though, he was going to keep watching the skyline.
The stars were very, very pretty tonight, and he wanted to enjoy them for as long as he could.
This might be the final night for a while he'd be able to relax.
Ammo was running low, but morale was running even lower.
This was the third village they'd come across like this, just a smoking wreck of broken buildings and dead villagers.
No survivors. There were never survivors.
"Shit," He remarked under his breath, slicking his hair back. There was nothing more to say.
The others were less vocal, but he could tell it was hitting them hard.
There were reasons he drank. This was one of them. Being too late.
"We need to keep moving. There's nothing we can do here."
They set out, departing the ruins of the village. He was worried. Destroyed villages this close to Mistral?
That sort of thing never bode well, and if there was one thing he was intimately familiar with, it was ill omens.
"Shit."
It was all he could say.